Dave Higgenbottom has hopes of “reviving” the TIMEX computer line. After hearing this rumor (in at least forty different formats) for several weeks, I was able to contact Mr. Higgenbottom by telephone for the following interview taped on June 18th.
Tex: Do you actually have the rights for TIMEX?
Dave: No, we are presently negotiating for them, in fact, we are working on the final draft of the business plan which we hope to submit to Timex by the end of the week.
Tex: Good, I guess that’s progress!
Dave: Well, as it is there are about 55 companies that have agreed “in principle” to merge together…
Tex: HOW MANY?
Dave: Fifty-five!
Tex: Hey, this is getting more intriguing by the moment! Would you elucidate a bit?
Dave: Essentially what we came up with was a way of acquiring the rights and being able to put forth a nation-wide marketing company. I went out and started contacting a lot of small companies that all serviced the TIMEX field, and presented them with the basic question, “What were they going to do now that TIMEX has stopped production?”. And how would they like to get together as a single company, a publicly held company, and not only be able to produce their product; but to have the rights for the computers as well. All of this has happened within the last 80 days or so.
Tex: Well, things move fast in the computer world.
Dave: I’m trying to move them very fast. As you can appreciate, there’s an immense amount of paper work that has to be accomplished. What we will have is the basis of a ‘Marketing Co-op”.
Tex: Well, that sounds good. Except for one Hastings Book Store in this area, I haven’t seen any real effort to market the TIMEX. I sometimes wonder if there is a real salesman left in the world!
Dave: Imagine, if you will, a National, even, International chain of DEDICATED computer stores under the name of, “THE LITTLE COMPUTER STORE”. It would have the products of all the member companies as well as products not necessarily associated with member companies, but also specifically related to TIMEX. The new computer when it comes out will be called, “TIMESTAR, The Timeless Little Computer”.
Tex: Now will this include producing the “1000”, “1500” as well as the “2068”?
Dave: The “1500”, yes, the “1000”, possibly not as it was essentially superseded by the 1500. As of the Memorial Day weekend I was able to contact 10 people of the original TIMEX design team, and they have all virtually agreed to come back together. So we will have some of the original product design team.
Tex: So you can take the 2068 on into areas that TIMEX had announced or hinted at: bank switching memory expansion, that kind of goodies?
Dave: In fact, the person who holds the bank-switching rights is one of those people.
Tex: Dave, can we call any names at this point?
Dave: At their request, no. You will find that I will be very free with information except where people have asked me not to. We have a little news “blip” that hasn’t been able to get out into the major area. I can read it to you…
Tex: Tape rollin, go ahead!
Dave: Essentially, this was the original news release we came up with, and it was dated 3/14/84:
“T/S COMPUTERS TO BE BORN AGAIN? How many of you have asked or been asked this question, “Is the T/S computer dead?”. The answer is no, we repeat, no! A thousand times, yea, 1500 times, yea, 2068 times NO. They are not even dying, they are just growing up. A metamorphosis is about to happen, one which may really shake things up. Following the formal announcement by the TIMEX Corporation regarding its withdrawal from the retail computer market, a multifaceted plan has been revealed by Trinity Magnum, a California company, to re-vamp and strengthen the T/S 1500-2068 market previously established by the TIMEX Corporation. The total re-structuring of distribution and marketing emphasis is foremost in this proposal. Nationwide support involving hardware manufacturers, software producers, and other interested individuals or companies related to the support of the T/S computers is seen at this time, and is growing daily at an astonishing rate. Plans include aggressively supporting the educational market with a complete systems approach, not only with peripherals and software heretofore only hoped for, even disk drives, full-size printers, expansion busses, and much, much more, all of which are already in production. Also high quality sophisticated courseware geared to individual subjects, as well as primary computer training. System sales, in-service training, user support, monthly publications and books, along with product maintenance and insurance will be offered. As part of the package, classroom networking as well as full system-wide interfacing will be stressed. In addition, a nation-wide chain of retail stores under the name of, “The Little Computer Stores” will be established, dedicated exclusively to the continued support and development of T/S compatible hardware, software and accessories, All items to be marketed will be of the highest quality, and fully warranted. Hardware/software demonstrations of any product will be offered. Stores will be operated as partnerships between individuals or companies and Trinity Magnum. A complete support system for the little computer and you, the dedicated user, will be the end result. No, folks, the T/S story is not ending here, only just beginning. Look for much more future life to come to your little computer system. Manufacturers or suppliers who want further information should contact David Higgenbottom at Trinity Magnum, (213) 864-7068,”
Dave: Now that’s what was to go into SYNC… Tex: AHA! And SYNC quit before they got around to publishing it!
Dave: And SYNC pulled the plug.
Tex: Yeah, I was one of those subscribers who got a choice of either of two magazines to fill out my unexpired subscription. I think they were extremely short-sighted on that. They completely ignored the thousands,..I won’t say millions because I really don’t know…
Dave: They had a hundred thousand subscriber, roughly, I don’t know, maybe 85 to 90 thousand.
Tex: Well now, Dave, can you honestly tell me that you are making real good progress here, and that we are going to see this?
Dave: I’m sitting here with one of the other fellows I have chosen as a partner, and he’s finishing up the business plan right in front of me…see, we already have a public company down in San Diego, California that has agreed to subordinate about two million shares out of 3,9 million and change its name to Trinity Magnum and to be the acquisition vehicle from which these other companies will come in. I spoke to a person this morning who may put in a minimum of $250,000 into the project, and I’ve got some other friends who will be able to come in for a bit more than that…
Tex: Am I reading you right that these stores are going to be more or less a franchise type…
Dave: No, a quasi-franchise, they will actually be limited partnerships between the owner-operators and Trinity Magnum, Trinity Magnum becoming the limited partner and they becoming the general partner, of each store. That way, we can actually support the price. That was one of the problems TIMEX had, they went down the street and sold their computer to everybody and said, “Here. You guys go fight.”
Tex: Maybe that was why nobody was pushing the things.
(At this point we discussed a sampling of suppliers, programmers, etc.)
Dave: One of the wild things that’s out there, there’s a tremendous amount of ingenuity and engineering talent. What I propose to do is basically have these people start complementing each other, rather than competing against each other. The concept of Trinity Magnum is that when Timex pulled the rug out from under, these companies were going nowhere except down. And what I am trying to do is build an ark big enough and fast enough…to give them as much independent control of their companies as possible, but go out with the combined financial resources of all these companies…you know how a dairy co-op works? O.K., now imagine Trinity Magnum would wind up having 50% of the co-op. Now each one of these little companies would now come in and Trinity Magnum would make an offer to acquire their assets for stock in Trinity Magnum. Now that gives Trinity Magnum, to the financial world, the combined financial resources of all these 100 “farmers”. And each “farmer” will sell his product to the co-op at a profit. The co-op in turn will market it, package it, get it ready for distribution to a major market like, say “Carnation”, which in this case happens to be The Little Computer Store. The co-op then would sell at a profit, and the money coming back would pay to run the co-op, packaging, transportation, etc, and what is left over would revert back to the individual shareholders of the co-op. How the companies will benefit is that they, in fact, will have ownership in Trinity Magnum, so they not only get their shares back for a dollar volume related directly in the co-op, they also get it back in long-term tax deferred income by virtue of their ownership in Trinity Magnum.
Tex: Will you carry the co-op concept on into the purchasing area?
Dave: What we are talking about now is purchasing 10,000 computers at a time from Timex. They will continue to manufacture them, only under the TIMESTAR label, they will be manufactured exclusively for us, as we will in fact have the rights to them. Now imagine being able to go out and order 10,000 or 50,000 disk drives at a time. Imagine user groups interrelated to the Little Computer Stores, walk in to the Little Computer Stores and have any hardware or software demonstrated prior to purchase. You would wind up having the stores support the user groups in their area, in fact the user groups could hold stock in the store.
Tex: One more crucial question, Dave, and I’ll let you go. When and where can we expect to see the first ““LITTLE COMPUTER STORE”?
Dave: I would like to see it in September. As for where, well, I have had 12 people stand up and want 18 stores, so…we envision between 2500 and 7000 stores all across the area we will hold the rights to when we get through.
Tex: What size city will you be targeting?
Dave: Wherever anybody wants a computer. A good rule of thumb is anywhere there’s a McDonalds, we’ll put a store. The stores will cost between $25,000 and $50,000 a whack, and most of that will be going into products. There isn’t going to be any kind of a franchise fee.
So that’s the Dave Higgenbottom story as of June 18, 1984, That wasn’t the whole conversation; Dave has plans for advanced models, expanded models, portable models, full use of the front port, in short, all the things Timex should have progressed to. It is a very ambitious undertaking, and if he pulls it off it should open up all kinds of opportunities,
Mailing address for Trinity Magnum is 10614 Roseton , Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670. Dave would especially like to hear from Charles Bride, believed to be somewhere in Massachussets, also Huron Valley Research, somewhere in Michigan.